Newspapers
and periodicals had an even greater readership than books
during the 19th century; in particular there was a rapid increase
in the number and variety of titles for women of all classes.

It is
difficult to overestimate the importance of the Victorian
periodical press. Advances in printing technology, an increasingly
literate and urban population, the growth of the professions
and the middle classes, a general thirst for knowledge, self-improvement
and entertainment created an insatiable market, at every level
of society, for newspapers and magazines on the widest possible
range of subjects. By 1899 Willing's press guide listed approximately
11,000 current titles, and the Waterloo Directory of English
Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900 estimates a total
output for the period of 125,000 titles.

Magazines
for women were not new - the first had appeared during the
seventeenth century - but the number and variety increased
considerably as the nineteenth century progressed. Contemporary
critics complained that many early Victorian women's periodicals
were limited to fashion and domestic topics, relying too heavily
on serialised fiction; by the 1840s the more successful titles
were including articles on education and social issues, and
Beeton's Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, founded
in 1852, reached out to the new mass market. During the second
half of the century women's periodicals began to give more
space to political matters, and although traditional domestic
magazines continued to flourish, there was a growing number
of feminist and radical titles, often written by and for working
women.

The last
thirty years of Queen Victoria's reign were a time of immense
activity in women's publishing. Following the abolition of
newspaper stamp duty in 1855 and the advertising tax in 1858,
it became possible to produce magazines more cheaply, and
on a wider range of subjects. Leisure and specialist titles
began to appear, reflecting new interests outside the home;
while conventional papers became less didactic, more practical
and more entertaining.